Islamic Arts Biennale 2025
And All That Is In Between
Western Hajj Terminal
Jeddah

Having recently completed its second edition, the Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah has firmly established itself on the international biennial circuit. With rigorous curatorial standards and an expansive vision, it emerged not only as a regional showcase but a global platform for Islamic art—past, present, and future.

Led by an international team of curators that included Amin Jaffer, Julian Raby, Abdul Rahman Azzam, and Muhannad Shono, this year’s edition was titled “And All That Is In Between,” inspired by a Qur’anic verse. This theme facilitated multi-scalar conversations spanning time, geography, and form. The biennial showcased objects from the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and beyond, organized across distinct indoor galleries, including pavilions dedicated to Mecca and Medina, as well as the vast outdoor site AlMidhallah (The Canopy). Ranging from Islamic artifacts to site-specific commissions, the biennial adopted a transhistorical approach that foregrounded continuity and transformation across centuries of Islamic-inspired material culture. The narrative embraced a layered logic rather than a linear trajectory, enabling past gestures to reverberate in the present, and contemporary works to reinterpret historical objects.